Look, Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball. He's a joy to watch at the plate.

But when you consider that Trout plays stellar defense at the premium position in the game, is an incredible baserunner, and has also compiled very impressive counting stats in one fewer month than Cabrera...come on.

RBI? Why are we including this? Trout and Cabrera have a similar "conversion rate" for RBI--the difference is Cabrera comes up with men on more often than Trout does. It isn't a fair stat to use in comparisons.

Look, Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball. He's a joy to watch at the plate.

But when you consider that Trout plays stellar defense at the premium position in the game, is an incredible baserunner, and has also compiled very impressive counting stats in one fewer month than Cabrera...come on.

RBI? Why are we including this? Trout and Cabrera have a similar "conversion rate" for RBI--the difference is Cabrera comes up with men on more often than Trout does. It isn't a fair stat to use in comparisons.

Premium position is SS. Triple Crown, trumps anything Trout has done this year period. To say someone doesn't deserve the MVP for doing something that hasn't been accomplished in almost half a century is ludicrous. Baseball is the lone sport defined by it's statistics, and if a player is a top all the hitter stats he's going to win MVP. PERIOD.

I'm not going to take anything away from Trout's season, he's got the ROY gift wrapped, a silver slugger award awaiting him, and possibly a GG. He's had a fantastic year, no question. But....

Baseball has been around for 160 years and in that time, 15 players have accomplished it, the Triple Crown. To put it in perspective one for every 10 years. There have been 23 perfect games thrown. So something that doesn't happen very often in this game, is acknowledged and is rewarded. That reward being the MVP.

If you really want to look at things from a statistical standpoint, pretty much all of the seperation between Trout and Cabera in WAR comes from Trout's substantion lead in dWAR, a stat I have always been skeptical about. I'm sorry, I'm not the biggest fan of defensive metrics. If you look at dWAR, it will tell you that Gordon Beckham is a below average 2B, which my own two eyes will tell you is absolutely insane. Going by oWAR, it's much closer, with Trout holding a slight edge at 8-7.2 which, yes, I believe is a gap that can be closed by winning the 1st Triple Crown in 45 years. If you want to believe that Mike Trout should be the AL MVP regardless, that's fine, it's a respectable opinion, but if you can't see any way that Cabrera deserves the award, ESPECIALLY with a Triple Crown on his resume, I'm sorry, but you're out of you're ****ing mind. Talk about missing the forest for the trees.

If Cabrera deserves it more just because of the statistical circumstance of the Triple Crown and the relatively long epoch since the last winner, you can make a similar unreasoned argument that Trout's performance just as amazing because he could win the ROY and MVP in the same season which is a rarer feat than winning the Triple Crown.

It's all objective bull****, since they're pretty much even. But saying MC should win it solely because of the Triple Crown is comically flawed and shortsighted.

If Cabrera deserves it more just because of the statistical circumstance of the Triple Crown and the relatively long epoch since the last winner, you can make a similar unreasoned argument that Trout's performance just as amazing because he could win the ROY and MVP in the same season which is a rarer feat than winning the Triple Crown.

It's all objective bull****, since they're pretty much even. But saying MC should win it solely because of the Triple Crown is comically flawed and shortsighted.

Which is also comically shortsighted, since stating something like "the Triple Crown's not that rare of an achievement" relies heavily on pre-WWII results, which nobody in their right mind would argue has any relevance on today's game (If Tip O'Neill can do it in 1887, ANY OLD BASTARD CAN, TOO).

This is why people hate sabremetrics, god damn it. The Triple Crown is something special, no matter how you want to argue it. If you can't accept that, well, then I guess we have to agree to disagree.

I heard it's been 45 years since the last one .. not to sound like Hawk, but i remember Yastrzemski's year well .. i was 12 that year and that was one hell of a season .. Cabrera is one of the best pure natural hitters i've ever seen ..